More Officers to join RGPF in coming months

The Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) is preparing to expand its family of officers as it makes room for 60 new recruits to join its frank and file in the next five months.

The new recruits will undergo rigorous training exercises for the next 20 weeks

Sixty prospective officers inclusive of 33 females and 27 males have started their 20 week training journey on the road to being officially listed as a member of RGPF.

In an opening ceremony held at the Police Training School at Camp Saline, Point Salines, St. George on Monday, recruits were encouraged to put their best foot forward in what would be a rigorous training exercise.

In delivering the keynote address at the ceremony, Deputy Commissioner Redhead told the recruits that their upcoming journey will be one of discovery of themselves as an individual and a journey to help them fit into the context of the police force.

The RGPF, he said is now going through a transition of renewing its principles and implored on the recruits the need to try their best to fit into that context that is aimed at effectively satisfying the needs of Grenada.

“Gone are the past days when we did things based on old standards.

What is prevalent now and what has to be the imperative is new standards going forward – understanding our dynamics, understanding our environments and ensuring that we can fit into those circumstances and challenges before you …”, he said.

“We’re at a time when law enforcement is increasingly under scrutiny in the context that we’re ensuring that we provide the services, but we do so from a professional basis and we don’t use the law for a tool for personal aspirations. We have to ensure also that when we understand where we sit in the context of this evolving dynamic, we can begin to understand the new requirements in terms of personnel and people that we have to ensure come into the RGPF and join the ranks of the RGPF,” he added.

DCOP Redhead reminded the trainees that they will have to beprepared for the ever-evolving threats of criminal activities.

“So, the threat really is no longer readily apparent in terms of crime, it is an asymmetric threat, it is things that you do not expect to happen but we have to be prepared for it. We have to be prepared in the widest dynamics and the widest context of ensuring that we as an institution, as a family, can respond to the ever-evolving threats and risk.

“And there would ever be evolving and shaping of it because for everything that you come up with as law enforcements in terms of counter measures, trust me they will find another way to get around it.

“…We have to be argyle as an institution, we have to ensure that we can adapt to change effectively and of course, you also have to begin to adapt to change and this is the environment in which you have to begin to understand your adaptability to change.

The No. 2 man in the police force impressed on the recruits the desire to search themselves and decide what is the reason they are seeking to join the police force.

Redhead noted that “law enforcement is a profession and if you are not in it for the right reason, for the right purpose, you’ll find yourself out the gates either by your own doing or you’ll be pushed out by the institution.”

He told the new recruits: “You’re here for a very specific purpose and it is to begin to reshape yourself, reshape your values if you will, reshape your physicality…we have to test all of these things to ensure that you as an individual can make the cut. Being here is not the fait accompli, the fait accompli is when you graduate and that is just the beginning of another process.”